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This came out of a convo with my boy Steevdeadman. A few months back I posted this thread about how much I loved the live guitar sound in this Placebo vid. With a bit of research (and archive.org's waybackmachine backup of the old placeboequipment.com), I discovered to my l33t dismay that the pedal Molko was using for that tone was... a Boss Metal Zone.

I say my "l33t dismay" because the Metal Zone is a pedal that I never really took seriously, so I started giving it a second look. I haven't bought one (yet, knowing me) but I can see how in the right hands it would be a super useful pedal.

Then the other day I was browsing the Pedalboards of the Stars thread and saw an MXR "Fullbore Metal" pedal on one board.

So, where do you stand on "metal" pedals? Love them? Hate them? They have their place? If you use one, how do you use it/for what kind of sounds?



Edit/Addition: I guess when I say "they have their place?" what I mean is, if we stop looking at them as a way to create the sound of massive mesa boogie power chord chooga chooga stuff, and start looking at them as super high gain distortion/fuzz pedals that just sound like pedals - just check out the Placebo track in the first thread I linked.

In the right hands, I think 'metal' oriented pedals certainly have their place.
I don't like them for myself, for the simple fact that my playing style/rig doesn't really do that kind of distortion justice.
That said, if I was in the kind of band that needed the 'chugga-chugga' sound..I'd probably get a SubDecay Blackstar or PiggyFX Black Pig, or something..

I have a DOD American Metal that I use quite often. It is usually place after reverb and I use it to make background noise and things. It works well for that, but for real distortion use it is kinda bad.

Haven't tried any of the Boss ones, though. And a lot of people seem to enjoy the HM-2.

So, they have their uses.

I've always wanted an HM-2 just to see if I could try and emulate that Sunlight Studios sound...... I'm sure it would be good for other things too......

Check out pretty much any of the big shoegaze bands...

futuresailors wrote:Check out pretty much any of the big shoegaze bands...

What bands/pedals do you suggest? I'd love to check 'em.

If I'm not mistake My Bloody Valentine, Swervedriver, Jesus and Mary Chain, and Curve all used HM2s at some point...
I think Asobi Seksu are using an MT2. And The Raveonettes use a MD2.

metal zones are everywhere, and usually stupid cheap. i think i'll have to just pick one up and see if i can make any use of it.

I read an interview with David Gilmore and he said he uses a metal zone

Derelict78 wrote:I read an interview with David Gilmore and he said he uses a metal zone

Seriously? Do you have a link to it?

Many of them run into the "can of bees" problem (metalzone/fullbore/metalmuff) of being overly saturated and devoid of anything resembling a soul.
Some bands make the can of bees thing work...the sword uses mostly metal muffs into orange amps for their tone and they

I don't count the HM-2 in that group...kinda mreh for metal but it's a favorite among other genres.

If you do want to actually get a "modern metal in a box" pedal there are plenty of decent choices these days...openhaus, dominator, pisdiyauwot, triple wreck, so much devastation.

Yeah, the "chugga chugga" thing doesn't hold a lot of interest for me.

HM-2. You wants.

I think pedals made of wood or plastic tend to be less durable in the long run.